SEM marketing consists of sponsored searches using key-word optimization. Sponsored search has a few different benefits. It’s an easy way to drive traffic to your site, collects hard data (information about the user), and can guarantee traffic for a set budget. Unlike organic search, sponsored searching can be managed in real-time. By logging on to the search engine account, you can immediately change the keywords affiliated with your website—you can even geographically target your ads. The keyword results will produce a listing on the search results page within the confines of the “Sponsored Results” section (often indicated by a label and shading).

Keywords (which can be either single words or phrases) are billed by their popularity; the greater the popularity of the word, the more expensive it is to use. Sponsored search is billed in two ways: pay-per-click (PPC) (keyword price multiplied by number of user CLICKS on the ad) and cost-per-impression (CPM) (keyword price multiplied by number of times VIEWED by users).

Managing a sponsored search account can be pricey if you are unfamiliar with keyword determination. Setup requires establishing an account, determining the keywords, and setting parameters. Maintenance requires keyword updates, changes to positioning, changes based on hard data information.